Usefulness of the weight-adjusted waist-to-hip ratio as a predictive tool for disease risk
Keywords:
weight-adjusted waist circumference; obesity; diabetes mellitus; cardiovascular risk; cutoff point.Abstract
Introduction: The weight-adjusted waist circumference (WC-C) is a new anthropometric measure that considers the magnitude of central obesity and could be useful in the field of health.
Objective: To describe the usefulness of the weight-adjusted waist-to-hip ratio as a predictive tool for disease risk.
Methods: A literature review was conducted using the following keywords: weight-adjusted waist circumference; obesity; diabetes mellitus; cardiovascular risk; cutoff point. The Google Scholar, SciELO, and PubMed databases were used for searching. Review articles, research papers, and websites were included, generally published within the last 10 years in Spanish and English, and alluding to the study topic in their titles. The most relevant and appropriate articles were selected according to the authors' criteria. Articles that did not address the relationship between the weight-adjusted waist circumference and the prediction of health risks were excluded. This resulted in the search of 52 articles, of which 31 were referenced.
Conclusions: The weight-adjusted waist circumference (WC) is effective for assessing central obesity and predicting health risks, including hypertension, cardiovascular and cerebrovascular disease, type 2 diabetes mellitus, chronic (diabetic) kidney disease, non-alcoholic fatty liver disease, sarcopenic obesity, severe periodontitis, and for evaluating the risk of non-accidental and all-cause mortality.
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